November 4, 2005

"Donald Trump has some kind of neurological event."

Jacob at Television Without Pity gives last night's episode "The Apprentice" an A+. It was rather good. (Spoiler alert.) Is Markus out of his mind? Who talks like that? Who thinks he's got something to say, even thinks he's articulate, and then meaninglessly jumps from one empty phrase to the next? It was so satisfying to see him so severely shredited. And the cab ride where he kept trying to explain himself until, it seemed, he too had gotten tired of hearing himself speak -- hilarious!

Jacob:
You'd think that Markus getting fired would be the best part. It isn't. The best part is in the Boardroom leading up to Markus's firing, where Donald Trump has some kind of neurological event and goes completely apeshit. And I mean to say that you have never seen this kind of behavior in your life. He first abruptly asks Clay if he's gay, acts stunned that Clay is gay, ascertains that Clay is therefore not attracted to women, clarifies that this Venn diagram excludes even women such as Alla, and then explains to us that this is why restaurants have menus: while Trump likes steak, other people like spaghetti.

Later, without even stopping to breathe almost, he: asks Adam straight up if he's a virgin (he is, but won't admit it), counsels him not to be afraid of sex because it is "not a big deal," posits that Adam will ten years from now be more "comfortable with sex," shares that sex has gotten him into "a lot of trouble" and cost him "a lot of money," discusses at length whether Adam is "soft" or "hard," and wraps up by telling Adam that there's "nothing like" sex, and that he should look forward to having it one day, in the creepiest, ickiest, most pervuncular way imaginable.
Ha, ha. I love the way the TWoP recaps bring all the memories of the show flooding back -- and even funnier. Ah, yes, Trump was exceedingly Trumpy last night. He should talk about sex more often!

12 comments:

Ron said...

[raises hand somewhat gingerly] Please Dr. Althouse, could you talk about how the commerce power supports the FMLA again, instead of hearing Trump talk about sex?

Thanks a whole bunch!

Unknown said...

He was bizarre...but that's why I watch! O/w you can always wake me up with a shot of his blindingly gold apartment.

Finn Alexander Kristiansen said...

This week's episode, along with last week's mass firing of four candidates, made for riveting television.

I did think Clay had somewhat of a point in that Adam during his presentation was falling back on ethnic stereotypes (about himself as a good Jewish boy); he should not have been totally shocked at Clay's attempt to ride on that theme. It was kind of a desperate, nervous attempt to be humorous but, HELLO, it's NYC, and with the possibility of a heavily Jewish audience.

I want to think that Markus was the victim of masochistic editing, but likely not; his pompous, puffed up exit from the boardroom was a hoot, in addition to his taxi ride, where no doubt he finally shut up under the erroneous assumption that he had made a valid, face saving point. Yuh huh, he is the man I want when martians invade earth and we have two seconds to talk our way out of being eaten.

I was also glad to see the two black contestants come off relatively well through the series. Often enough these shows have a habit of picking the worst or most outrageous black candidates (like Big Brother and its string of flamboyant and annoying black homosexual candidates). If a show is going to have only one black person, they should make an attempt to make it a candidate who is reasonably representative of blacks as a whole, instead of serving as comic relief, menace to "the group" or muted wallpaper.

Ann Althouse said...

Josh: As to Trump, I too had some trouble experiencing the "event" as funny, but it was really funny as recapped.

As to the "tight Jew" comment, I think Clay meant "uptight," not cheap. I think the point was that Adam was extremely nervous about talking about sex and Clay just wanted to poke fun at him for that. He threw in "Jew" only because Adam himself kept referring to the fact that he's "a nice Jewish boy." Clay had a tin ear about a lot of what he was saying and "tight Jew" was just another one of them.

And I just wrote that before reading Finn's comment, btw.

Pete said...

Yay, Apprentice blogging!

Yes, Adam opened the door to using the word Jew but a careful watching of the scene in question shows Adam had just made a reference to how expensive dating can be. That's when Clay made his reference to "tight Jew," which seems to me that this was a play on the supposed skinflintness of Jews and not about being sexually uptight. I think he went a little too far through that door.

Finn kristiansen,

Though Omarosa was a true villian and black, I don't think this show goes out of its way to portray blacks as being exceptionally evil or stupid or foolish. It's an equal opportunity show that portrays everyone as something much less than their resumes would lead you to believe they are, which is what delights me about this show, and Martha's show, too. Not much of a reason to watch a show, I suppose, but there it is.

CM said...

Just watched it on TiVo. We rewound the "steak or spaghetti" part three times, and almost fell off the couch laughing.

But I hadn't read the recap -- "the creepiest, ickiest, most pervuncular way imaginable." Love it.

Ann Althouse said...

Yeah, pervuncular is a brilliant coinage. Better than shrediting.

Ruth Anne Adams said...

Dave:
I read [in a hotel copy of TV Guide] that Alla is a former exotic dancer and her previous experience came out in the boardroom. Trump was noticing that Alla was exceptionally good at dealing with juvenile/boyish/boorish men and he probed to discover that she learned that skill dealing with "clients".

So Trump is tuned into the sex wavelength and can spot a former lap-dancer a mile away.

Interesting, but still icky.

Unknown said...

Olivia,
I think you and I are the last two people in the US who hate the word "ass," which is now everywhere on TV and in real life, too.

I thought Clay was totally over the top offensive with his repeated references using that word.

Ron said...

I came up with a coinage for the deliberate misuse of words for political discussion/advantage:

malapropaganda.

Paul Worthington said...

I was surprised by the bluntness of Trump's questions, considering they keep reminding us "this is a job interview". His exact words to Clay were "are you gay?" and to Adam, "have you ever had sex?" You don't get any more point blank than that. I could swear those kinds of questions in more traditional interviews are illegal, aren't they?

Unknown said...

I'm totally stealing "shrediting."